ALPINE FLOWERS 



[PART I. 



but in gardens, where our creations in this way can only 

 be Lilliputian, a different method must be pursued, except 

 in places where great cliffs are naturally exposed ; and even in 

 this case much vegetation is best. Frequently masses of stone 

 with an occasional tuft of vegetation, are met with under the 

 name of " rockwork," every chink and joint between the stones 

 being quite exposed. This should not be so ; every minute 

 chink should have its little line of verdure. Where the ground 

 is low, there is not the slightest need for placing stones all over 

 the surface ; an occasional one cropping up here and there from 

 the mass of vegetation will give the best effect. Alpine flowers 

 are often seen in multitudes and in their loveliest aspect in some 

 little elevated level spot, frequently without rocks being visible 

 through it, and when they do occur, merely peeping up here and 

 there. They are lovely, too, in the awful wastes of broken rock, 

 where they cower down between the great stones in lonely tufts, 

 but it is only when Gentians and silvery Cudweeds, and minute 

 white Buttercups, and strange large Violets, and Harebells that 

 waste all their strength in flowers, and fairy Daffodils that droop 

 their heads as gracefully as Snowdrops, are seen, forming a dense 



turf of living enamel work, that 

 they are seen in all their beauty. 

 Fortunately, the flowery turf and 

 gentle mound are much more 

 possible to us than the moraine 

 ruin or arid cliffs. 



In cultivating the rarest and 

 smallest alpine plants, the stony, 

 or partially stony, surface is to 

 be preferred. In their case, we 

 cannot allow the struggle for life 

 to have its own relentless way, 

 or we should often have to grieve 

 at finding the Eritrichium from 

 the high Alps of Europe overrun 

 Ledge of Alpine Flowers (a Garden sketch). ; and exterminated by an alpine 

 American Phlox. Full exposure is also necessary to com- 



